The Cultural Cooperation Corporation for Film and Audiovisual Production, Beirut D.C, will hold at Beirut Theater a film festival entitled Towards Discovering Cinema in Black Africa during the period between February 7-10.

The event will be in collaboration with North-South Institute for Cultural Dialogue.

The festival, the Lebanese daily al Nahar said, will be an occasion to screen films because it provides the opportunity for holding a meeting and a dialogue between the Lebanese and African filmmakers. Because this cinema is still almost strange for the Lebanese people, this festival has come to familiarize them with it. It has in addition to its artistic value a cultural and civilization value for the cultural identity of the Black continent peoples it depicts.

13 films (6 long, five short and 2 documentary) will be screened during the 4-day festival. The films will be from those produced during the period between 1988 to date to enable the Lebanese audience gets in step with the developments this cinema has achieved.

The event will be inaugurated next Thursday along with a concert by Saf sap Troupe and will be followed by screening the film Journey to Auga by the director Camille Moiki from Congo Basaville. It will be concluded next Sunday by screening the film Land by the director Abdel Rahman Sissaco from Mauritania at the French Cultural Center Montana Hall -- Albawaba.com